Communication gap fills public woe to the brim
Earthwork for sewerage project leads to complete blackout in Thangal Bazaar
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 08, 2012:
With communication gaps among various government departments over taking up any developmental works in the state, the suffering of the public has increased manifold.
In the latest incident, the work of digging up in Thangal Bazaar area by Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has cut off all the underground electric cables leading to a complete blackout of the busy market area.
The digging of the ground in Thangal Bazaar started since 8 pm yesterday.
It is said that the ongoing digging up process being carried out by PHED is in connection with the long-delayed sewerage project.
However, in the process of digging up the ground, all the underground electric cable wires have been damaged.
Officials of Electricity Department inspected the area today and the process for mending the damaged electric wires started.
Ibochou, Executive Engineer, Electrical Division-I, who was present during the inspection visit, informed Hueiyen Lanpao that the underground electric cables near Shamu Makhong area were damaged by officials of PHED while digging up the area.
"This has happened again as the PHED officials have not informed the Electricity department about their intension of digging up the area.
As a result, two Ima Keithels, Thangal Bazaar and Khuyathong area are experiencing complete blackout and around 3,000 consumers are suffering", Ibochou said.
He went on to inform that when he went to Thangal Bazaar after hearing the news of blackout, he found that it was because of the damages caused to the electric cables in digging up of the area by PHED.
Taking strong exception to digging up of the area without informing the Electricity Department, Ibochou reportedly directed the workers for sending a responsible officer to Electricity Department to him.
However, no officer turned up.
Ibochou disclosed that the electric cables which have been damaged by PHED officials were one of the most powerful and costly wires.
These types of wires are even used under the sea to transmit electricity.
"If the PHED officials had completely destroyed the underground electric cable, it would have even caused fire.
Fortunately, the wires were partially destroyed.
However, it is very unfortunate on the part of the PHED to cause damage to the underground cables, which were buried 10 feet below the ground despite informing about the underground wires earlier", Ibochou said.
It may be noted here that there have also been instances of destroying underground cables by Forest Department while planting trees in Paona Bazaar area.